Man gets probation after firing 'warning shot' into neighbor's leg

FLINT, MI - A Flint man is on probation after firing a "warning shot" into his neighbor's leg while she stood on his front porch.

An altercation occurred on Feb. 17 when the neighbor of Shawne Norval Felton, knocked three times on Felton's front door on East Russell Avenue, according to a police report.

The neighbor sought a refund of the $90 she had paid Felton's roommate for home repairs after he didn't finish the job. Instead, Felton answered the door, stepping out onto the front porch to choke the woman with one hand while placing a handgun to her left temple with the other, stating, 'I'll blow your head off,'" the neighbor told police.

Felton, 42, and his roommate told police the woman attempted to force entry into the home, which she denied.

It was then that Felton fired what he told officials was a "warning shot" into the woman's leg, telling her to go home before Felton called 911, according to the police report.

"Boom, I shot the ground," he told police. "I don't know if it went through her leg or ricocheted or what."

Flint police arrived on the scene around 9 a.m. on Feb. 17, according to the report, observing a "large blood trail" leading from Felton's home to the woman's residence, as well as "a large amount of blood" on the corner of Felton's porch.

The woman was taken to Hurley Medical Center where she was later released, police said.

Felton, who was taken into custody, was originally charged with felonious assault - a four-year felony - but pleaded to an amended misdemeanor charge of discharging a firearm while aimed without malice but with injury. He was sentenced Sept. 7 to a year of probation by Judge Jennifer J. Manley, with stipulations that he forfeits the gun and have no hostile, aggressive or violent contact with his neighbor.

If all terms of sentencing are completed, the charges will be reduced to a lesser misdemeanor charge, according to court records.

"This was a difficult and very challenging set of facts," said Felton's attorney, Nicholas R. Robinson. "We appreciate all of the parties that had a hand in the result."